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Per-judge retention calls inside

The ballot

Tennessee Court of Appeals judges are appointed by the governor, confirmed by the General Assembly, and then face statewide yes-or-no retention elections every eight years. A majority of YES votes retains the judge. This cycle's retention election was held August 6, 2026 — not November 3 — and all three judges in this guide were retained; the margins below are verified results, appended to calls made on the pre-election record. A note on the calendar that explains this whole guide: all three judges were new appointees confirmed in March 2026, and Tennessee sends new appellate appointees to the voters at the first August election after appointment — which is why three judges with only months of appellate service have full retention verdicts on the record.

The evaluation correction, printed up front: the Tennessee Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission described in older references (Tenn. Code §17-4-201) expired June 30, 2014 — the Administrative Office of the Courts archives it as no longer existing. There was no official evaluation in 2026. The functional evaluations are the General Assembly's March 5, 2026 confirmation votes and the voters' August verdicts, printed per judge.

Judge William E. Phillips II (Eastern Section)

Appointed by: Governor Bill Lee, March 2026, succeeding retiring Chief Judge D. Michael Swiney; confirmed by joint convention March 5, 2026 (House 78–0 with 8 present-not-voting; Senate 20–0; judiciary committee recommendation 17–0). Retained August 6, 2026, with 72.4% YES.

Credits: Nearly 24 years of legal experience: two decades at the family firm Phillips & Hale in Rogersville, city attorney for Church Hill and Rogersville, and service on the Rogersville City Board of Education — then Circuit Court judge for the 3rd Judicial District from October 2021 (Lee appointee; elected 2022), presiding over the full general-jurisdiction docket he described to the legislature: domestic relations, termination of parental rights, criminal cases, and jury trials. Sewanee (B.A. 1999) and University of Memphis Law (J.D. 2002). At his hearing he described his small-town practice as requiring him to be a generalist — the accurate summary of the file.

Dirt column: None located. Unanimous confirmation votes in both chambers and no adverse coverage in the appointment, confirmation, or results reporting worked for this guide.

Judge Steve Maroney (Western Section)

Appointed by: Governor Bill Lee, succeeding retiring Judge Kenny Armstrong; confirmed by joint convention March 5, 2026 (House 75–4 with 3 present-not-voting; Senate 28–0; Senate Judiciary 9–0). Retained August 6, 2026, with 71.9% YES.

Credits: The longest legal career in this guide: 29 years of private practice in Jackson, then Chancellor (chancery court judge) for the 26th Judicial District. Union University and University of Memphis Law. At the judiciary-committee stage, the governor's chief counsel introduced him and Judge Hixson together as the governor's appellate nominees; the committees' questioning of Maroney centered on philosophy and precedent, drew no documented objection, and produced unanimous committee votes.

Dirt column: None located. The four House dissenting votes on his confirmation are a number, not a stated case — no source in the confirmation coverage attributes a substantive objection to any of the four — and this guide does not invent one.

Judge Valerie Smith (Western Section)

Appointed by: Governor Bill Lee. Retained August 6, 2026, with 74.6% YES — the largest margin of all seven appellate judges on Tennessee's August ballot (a 49-point win).

Credits: Memphis circuit judge since 2016 — a decade on one of Tennessee's busiest trial benches before elevation — after five years as an assistant district attorney and about a decade in private practice. The House Judiciary Committee's confirmation record credits her with disposing of over 4,000 cases and presiding over many jury and bench trials; the committee recommended her 21–0 with 1 present-not-voting. Her stated philosophy, given to the committee: a judge interprets statutes "as passed by this body" and applies them "to the facts in a neutral way" — judicial restraint stated in her own words, on the record.

Dirt column: None located in appointment, confirmation, or results coverage.

OUR CALL

Retain — all three: William E. Phillips II, Steve Maroney, and Valerie Smith. (Calls recorded on the pre-election record; the August 6 results — Phillips 72.4%, Maroney 71.9%, Smith 74.6% YES — are appended as results, and Tennessee voters agreed with all three.)

Our standard is the same in every state in this coverage: Retain for a serviceable documented record; Do Not Retain requires proven cause — documented misconduct, proven activist judging, or an evaluation failure. Tennessee has offered no evaluation since its commission expired in 2014, so these files stand on service and confirmation, and both are strong: three trial judges with 10-to-29-year records behind them, confirmed by a joint convention with a combined four dissenting votes, and carrying no proven adverse entry among them. Short appellate tenure is the honest limit on all three files — months, not years, of Court of Appeals service at election time — and it is the system's own design for new appointees, not a defect in any judge. Tennessee voters, given the same files, returned the same verdict by 44-to-49-point margins.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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